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  <section id="module-sndhdr">
<span id="sndhdr-determine-type-of-sound-file"></span><h1><a class="reference internal" href="#module-sndhdr" title="sndhdr: Determine type of a sound file."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sndhdr</span></code></a> — Determine type of sound file<a class="headerlink" href="#module-sndhdr" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p><strong>Source code:</strong> <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/cpython/tree/3.9/Lib/sndhdr.py">Lib/sndhdr.py</a></p>
<hr class="docutils" id="index-0" />
<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="#module-sndhdr" title="sndhdr: Determine type of a sound file."><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sndhdr</span></code></a> provides utility functions which attempt to determine the type
of sound data which is in a file.  When these functions are able to determine
what type of sound data is stored in a file, they return a
<a class="reference internal" href="collections.html#collections.namedtuple" title="collections.namedtuple"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">namedtuple()</span></code></a>, containing five attributes: (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">filetype</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">framerate</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">nchannels</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">nframes</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sampwidth</span></code>). The value for <em>type</em>
indicates the data type and will be one of the strings <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'aifc'</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'aiff'</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'au'</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'hcom'</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'sndr'</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'sndt'</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'voc'</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'wav'</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'8svx'</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'sb'</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'ub'</span></code>, or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'ul'</span></code>.  The <em>sampling_rate</em> will be either the actual
value or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">0</span></code> if unknown or difficult to decode.  Similarly, <em>channels</em> will be
either the number of channels or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">0</span></code> if it cannot be determined or if the
value is difficult to decode.  The value for <em>frames</em> will be either the number
of frames or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">-1</span></code>.  The last item in the tuple, <em>bits_per_sample</em>, will either
be the sample size in bits or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'A'</span></code> for A-LAW or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">'U'</span></code> for u-LAW.</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="sndhdr.what">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">sndhdr.</code><code class="sig-name descname">what</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">filename</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#sndhdr.what" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Determines the type of sound data stored in the file <em>filename</em> using
<a class="reference internal" href="#sndhdr.whathdr" title="sndhdr.whathdr"><code class="xref py py-func docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">whathdr()</span></code></a>.  If it succeeds, returns a namedtuple as described above, otherwise
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code> is returned.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.5: </span>Result changed from a tuple to a namedtuple.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="sndhdr.whathdr">
<code class="sig-prename descclassname">sndhdr.</code><code class="sig-name descname">whathdr</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em class="sig-param">filename</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#sndhdr.whathdr" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Determines the type of sound data stored in a file based on the file  header.
The name of the file is given by <em>filename</em>.  This function returns a namedtuple as
described above on success, or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>.</p>
<div class="versionchanged">
<p><span class="versionmodified changed">Changed in version 3.5: </span>Result changed from a tuple to a namedtuple.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

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